Chapter-5 Arctic Waters, 64° 37′ 10″ N, 19° 10′ 20″ W Hantaa Ship01

Captain Shinji Akira gripped his binoculars tightly. They have been drifting in the Arctic for 2 days without seeing a single ship passing by to assist them with their situation.

They still have a month worth of logistic supplies. Diesel fuel was also more than enough to power an electric generator for two months. The problem was if they got stranded, hit an iceberg, or got hit by storms and big waves. They wouldn't last even for a few hours.

The doors to the engine room and hull had been completely sealed. No one was allowed to open it. The rooms were filled with water. Captain Shinji also flooded the bow hatch and filled it with water to keep the ship balanced.

"Sorry Captain, there is a suggestion from the crew regarding one important matter. About our culture as Japanese people. Sorry," Yoshido bowed respectfully.

Captain Shinji sighed. He actually thought the same thing even before Yoshido made his point.

"I know what you mean Yoshido san. It's between rationality and romanticism. If we open the door to retrieve the bodies and hold a sailor burial ceremony, won't it be harmful to the balance of the ship?"

Yoshido bowed again.

"Haik! We've discussed how to retrieve the bodies below without disturbing the balance of the ship."

Captain Shinji listened closely to Yoshido's explanation.

"We assigned four divers to retrieve the bodies through the hole in the hull. We still have enough oxygen cylinders for this operation."

"And then we can carry out the ceremony to release the bodies as we have done with the previous two bodies..."

Yoshido stopped abruptly because the hull was slightly shaken, several times in succession.

Captain Shinji looked at the monitor screen. No big slabs of ice. The weather was good. The sea was very calm. What was that?

Yoshido who was watching several monitor screens pointed at one of them with a trembling index finger.

"Shark! Shark Captain! Big sharks are trying to get in through the hole in the hull."

The two turned to each other. It turned out the evacuation process would not be as easy as it seemed.

"I wonder if the camera is still working in there," Captain Shinji was talking to himself while pressing several buttons to check the surveillance cameras in the room in question.

It works! Captain Shinji let go a little scream while signaling Yoshido to come closer. The Hantaa 01 ship was equipped with many surveillance cameras, all of which were waterproof. Captain Shinji was just worried that the camera was damaged due to the impact during the collision and the storm.

Monitor screens number 8 and 9 showed the engine room and hull room filled with water.

There were also corpses floating around the room. Captain Shinji and Yoshido simultaneously sighed while watching the monitors. They were crew members who had joined Hantaa 01 for a long time.

"Yoshido san, why are there three corpses?" Captain Shinji pointed at the monitor with a puzzled look on his face.

Yoshido was also stunned. Correct! There were three bodies floating in the water. Weren't there only two crew members who died in that room?

Captain Shinji called the ship's doctor over the intercom. He immediately pointed at the monitor as soon as he saw Doctor Akiko arrive in a hurry. He was asking for an explanation because it was Doctor Akiko who did the recount of the number of crew members after the disaster.

"Why are there three corpses below? It should only be two?" Doctor Akiko said quietly as if to herself.

Her eyes went back and forth staring at the monitor screen and the list of notes in her hand.

"Tha…that's…not one of the Hantaa 01 crew Captain….that… I don't know?" Doctor Akiko stuttered after looking closely at the floating body.

Captain Shinji and Yoshido looked at each other. It seemed that they had the same thoughts because then they almost simultaneously said to Doctor Akiko.

"Doctor, could you take a closer look at the anatomy and morphology to see whether it is a human body?"

Doctor Akiko didn't understand the direction of the questions, but she did what they asked. Her hands gave zoom and frame commands on the keyboard.

Doctor Akiko looked at the screen for a long time. As time went on, her face grew paler. Occasionally she shook her head to sooth her own mind from so much confusion.

"It can be confirmed that it's a human Captain, Yoshido san. But there are some strange things about her," Doctor Akiko answered without moving her gaze to the monitor screen. While listening to Captain Shinji's explanation of the figure curled up in a chunk of ice that ripped the hull of the ship.

"Her face is covered by a waterproof mask. Judging from her anatomy and posture, she is a modern human being. But her hair pigment is very strange. No human in today's world has the original blue pigment. Look, the second peculiarity, under her ears there is a thin layer like gills. Third, this human seems to be ALIVE."

Doctor Akiko's last statement made Captain Shinji and Yoshido gasp in shock. Alive?

"So what do you think we should do with her?"

"If you want to evacuate the bodies of our crews below, we should evacuate that strange woman at the same time. Even though she is alive, she is still unconscious."

Captain Shinji immediately held a quick meeting to make an evacuation plan. Four divers would enter through a hole in the hull of the ship. Two marine biologists and shark behaviour specialist would deal with the sharks.

The evacuation process was monitored directly by Captain Shinji from the bridge. The divers were equipped with cameras attached to their diving helmets.

Meanwhile, Doctor Akiko prepared the ship's clinic isolation room which he turned into a research room. The figure had stirred his curiosity as a doctor and a scientist. Extraordinary! It could be a spectacular discovery of the century!

After all preparations completed, the evacuation operations were carried out.

Four divers plunged into the cold sea after the two experts first dived in to deal with a group of white sharks that were still clustered in front of the hole. The sharks were trying to get in to prey on the two bodies inside. Or maybe three?

Captain Shinji and Yoshido followed closely from all cameras as the two experts managed to lure the white sharks to the other side using the meat bait they brought from the boat.

The four divers entered the the ship through the gaping hull.

It wasn't long before two divers managed to pull out a body and tied it to a large, heavy buoy that they carried. Next, another body was successfully tied to the second buoy. The divers cut the ballast rope so that the bodies of the two crew members ascended to the surface of the sea. Two divers followed behind. While the other two were trying to retrieve the figure of the strange woman.

The third evacuation process turned out to be a problem. When the figure was successfully tied to the buoy and the ballast was released, suddenly out of nowhere, a great white shark tried to grab a diver.

The diver managed to dodge but part of his arm was cut by the shark teeth. Luckily the two experts reappeared and distracted the sharks with food bait. The two divers and two experts made it to the surface and boarded the ship safely.

Although injured, the experienced diver also helped raise the mysterious figure with long dark blue hair to the ship.

While the other crew members were preparing the two bodies of their comrades for the sailor's ceremony, Doctor Akiko kept looking at the mysterious figure lying in the isolation room of the clinic.

The figure was indeed a woman. Modern human but from unknown century. Striking face she had small gill implanted under her ear.

The most extraordinary about her, the woman had normal organs and they appeared to be functioning normally. As if being wrapped in ice for God knows how long had no effect on her.

Doctor Akiko shifted her gaze to the strange mask the woman was wearing. The mask's structure was peculiar, high-tech, had thin life-sustaining wires and made of carbon-like fibers that she never had seen before in her career as a research scientist.

Doctor Akiko drew her first conclusion; the mask was what kept the woman alive.

Second conclusion; she was a high-tech cryogenetic object. The evident was from the clothes she was wearing that was made of a thin membrane that continuously emitted warm air.

Suddenly Doctor Akiko was able to draw all three conclusions; This girl was clearly from the early 20s! After removing the membrane, it turned out that the underwear was a model that could only be found from that era!

This is batshit crazy! What research this woman had been subjected to? And by whom?